Kusal Perera out of Champions Trophy, Sri Lanka call up Dhananjaya
Sri Lanka have been forced to make a second change to their ICC Champions Trophy squad, with Dhananjaya de Silva replacing the injured Kusal Perera.
Chamara Kapugedera was ruled out of the tournament earlier this week, leading to a call-up for Danushka Gunathilaka, who made the most of his chance by striking 76 in Thursday's victory over India.
That result kept Sri Lanka's hopes of qualifying alive ahead of their final group game against Pakistan on Sunday.
Yet Kusal will miss that fixture - and the knockout stages should Sri Lanka progress - due to the hamstring injury he sustained against India.
Kusal was forced to retire hurt on 47, having initially tried to carry on with his movement between the wickets clearly compromised.
On Saturday, the ICC approved the addition of Dhananjaya, who has played 16 one-day internationals, to the Sri Lanka squad.
#CT17 technical committee approves Dhananjaya de Silva as a replacement player for Kusal Perera in the @OfficialSLC squad #SLvPak pic.twitter.com/ATXBNrIbe6
— ICC Media (@ICCMediaComms) June 10, 2017
Sri Lanka team manager Asanka Gurusinha was quoted by ESPNCricinfo as saying: "We got bad news last night that his hamstring injury worse than everyone thought so Kusal is out of the tournament.
"The doctor's comment was that it's a pretty serious hamstring injury. He will most likely fly home in the next few days.
"With Upul [Tharanga] suspended [for a serious over-rate offence in Sri Lanka's defeat to South Africa] that's why we got Dhananjaya down pretty quickly because we needed a batsman."